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Updated: Oct 18, 2025

Setup of Capillary Electrophoresis-Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry CE-ICP-MS for Quantification of Iron Redox Species FeII, FeIII
Published on: May 4, 2020
Should the term 'metallic iron' appear in the title of a research paper?
1Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), Universität Göttingen, Waldweg 26, 37073, Göttingen, Germany; Faculty of Science and Technology, Campus of Banekane, Université des Montagnes, P.O. Box 208, Bangangté, Cameroon; Department of Water and Environmental Science and Engineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 447, Arusha, Tanzania; School of Earth Science and Engineering, Hohai University, Fo Cheng Xi Road 8, Nanjing, 211100, China; Department of Applied Geology, University of Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3, D-37077, Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
Over the past three decades, groundwater remediation using permeable reactive barriers (PRBs) has proven to be effective. The majority of installed PRBs uses metallic iron (Fe(0)) as a reactive material. However, the success of implemented Fe(0) PRBs is yet to be rationalized as Fe(0) is a generator of iron oxides (contaminant scavengers) and secondary reducing agents (e.g. Fe(II), Fe3O4, H2, green rust), This communication demonstrates that Fe(0) is not an environmental reducing agent. Therefore, more science-based investigations are needed to optimize the operation of Fe(0) PRBs. In particular, Fe(0) PRBs and Fe(0)-based water filters should be regarded as particular cases of "metal corrosion in porous media". A key feature of such systems is that the extent of Fe0 corrosion temporally depends on the residual porosity (capillarity). Thus, the functionality of any Fe0 PRB should be monitored in a way that the time-dependent variation of the kinetic of iron corrosion is discussed.
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